Last Thursday, the sailors contacted the yacht's owner to say they were taking on water and diverting to the Azores.

Contact was lost the following day and it is thought the yacht may have capsized. Locator beacons activated by the crew indicated they were in a position 1,000 miles east of Massachusetts on the morning of Friday 16 May.

'Cabin flooded'

The US Coast Guard said a warship helicopter crew located the hull 1,000 miles from Massachusetts.

The warship was diverted and a boat crew sent to examine the boat.

They found the cabin of the yacht was flooded and the windows shattered. The yacht's keel was also broken, causing a breach in the hull, a spokesman added.

An image showing the life raft still in position had been "shared with and acknowledged by the [men's] families", the Coast Guard said later on Friday night.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it was keeping in close contact with the US Coast Guard and had informed family members of the missing men of the discovery.

Twelve-person life raft

A raft, such as that on board the Cheeki Rafiki, is required to meet the international standard ISO 9650, which stipulates how the craft must be constructed and what it must have on board. The rafts are highly visible and buoyant and can be boarded quickly in an emergency.

The Foreign Office said the British Hercules C-130 plane would continue scouring the search area "for one more day" on Saturday.

"They will be co-ordinating closely with the US Coast Guard on the search area," it said.

It said the US had "gone above and beyond" in its effort to locate the yacht and its British crew.

The plane, which was deployed on Tuesday and is operating from Portugal's Azores islands in the Atlantic, was expected to end its search at about 22:00 BST on Saturday, the Foreign Office added.

It is understood it will probably fly two search missions on Saturday - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Tuesday's decision to resume the search followed an official request from the UK government. An online petition, set up to put pressure on the US Coast Guard, had attracted more than 200,000 signatures.